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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
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April 2004 |
New South Indiana Conference Center opens doors
Consecrated to the use of making disciples for Jesus Christ
By Ed Metzler
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The completion of the South Indiana Annual Conference Center is not a goal in itself, but a tool for making disciples for Christ, Bishop Woodie White told a standing-room-only gathering at the center's consecration service March 19.
Nearly 150 church leaders gathered in the center's spacious conference room to take part in the consecration of the 21,265-square-foot, two-story building that was completed in 14 months at a cost of $2.9 million. Wilson said about $260,000 for the project came from donors.
"It is also a way we demonstrate in this place whose we are and who we are," Bishop White said in his remarks. "One of the interesting things about the design of this place is that the first floor is devoted to those who want to use the building; it is devoted to those who meet and plan. It is devoted to those who indeed are disciple-makers."
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South Indiana Annual |
The building has nearly 4,000 square feet of meeting space and office space for the conference staff's 25-plus employees. Most of the offices are on the second floor. The first floor contains the Media Center, the reception area, a chapel, a conference room, a kitchen, rest rooms, other meeting rooms and the Bloomington District Office. The modern facility also boasts nearly 4 miles of computer network cabling and radio-synchronized "atomic" clocks throughout the hallways on both floors.
The building was designed to be accessible to everyone, with a drive-up, covered front entrance with automatic doors, elevator, spacious halls and wide doorways. The reception desk was lowered to make it welcoming to those in wheelchairs. Sunlight brightens the interior from seemingly hundreds of windows and skylights. The parking lot has space for 100 vehicles.
While the building provides facilities to support the connected ministries of the South Indiana Conference, David Steele, the building task force chairman, said it represents much more. He called the building a vision of the future of the denomination.
Steele told the gathering the new center was "a building they could visit and know they had a part in its construction; a building that is an inspiration to the staff and each visitor and a building that will be a visual reminder of Jesus' presence in our community to the thousands of persons who drive by on Highway 37 each day."
Indeed, the two-story United Methodist cross-and-flame logo that marks the building front is clearly visible from the busy highway, as are the colored windows in the chapel in the front of the building that are illuminated nightly. The building is situated about 40 feet above and 200 yards west of the highway.
The Conference Center replaces the former conference headquarters on East Second Street that had housed the annual conference offices since 1962. Brent Wilson, conference treasurer and director of administrative services, said the planning process began rather unexpectedly when someone walked into the old headquarters seven years ago and asked if the conference wanted to sell the building. Formal discussions began in the fall of 1997. Wilson said the conference looked carefully at what it would take to serve its needs for the next 40 or 50 years.
"In some notes that I found last year in my office," Wilson told the gathering, "someone was remembering the day we moved into the old building. She commented, 'January 28, 1962, was a red-letter day. The offices were moved from downtown Bloomington to our beautiful new building at the eastern edge of Bloomington, where we were surrounded by few buildings and large expanses of fields.'" That last comment got a laugh from those who were all too familiar with the now over-grown area on which the old headquarters building stands.
During the Consecration Service, Steele unveiled the center's first gift of art, a framed tile cross-and-flame logo done by Gary Covey, the contractor who laid most of the tile in the building.
Bishop White jokingly told the conference staff that he expected better work from them in their new building. Then he said, more seriously, "That is what a building ought to do. It ought not just look good. It ought not just be the latest in design and technology. But the people who serve here, the people who work here, ought to demonstrate and evidence the values for which this building stands."
During the service, the Rev. Robert Sharp, conference council director, displayed a plaque consecrating the building "to the glory of God in honor of Bishop Woodie W. White, serving the people of The United Methodist Church in Indiana 1992-2004." Representing the laity of the Conference at the Service was James Shaw, South Indiana Conference lay leader.
Last updated on 04/19/2004